ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Hawks 11/5/2016 (HARDEN vs. HOWARD)

Atlanta rappers are gay. That's what pimp c said before he passed away. Therefore Rockets win

 

Every win is meaningful. Beating lottery teams are must wins. Beating top 10-12 teams in the NBA are measuring sticks to where the team's at and where they need to improve.

Looking back to the season opener against LA - likely a lottery team this year - was a meaningful loss or could have been a meaningful win. That one loss could take us from the 4th seed to 5th.

 

Nah, what I mean is that I don't know how good Rockets are, because so far they haven't won a single game against serious team.

 

Ahh, i gotcha - agreed then! lol

Win the next 3 out of 4 (next 4 against ATL, Wash, Spurs), and the league's gonna start taking notice.

 

If Howard have a monster game we will lose. Atlanta is a solid team and it won't be as easy as the Knicks.

 

I would be worried if they still have Horford. Howard? Easy win! 120-104

 

Millsap and Dwight will murder us

 

This is a huge game for Nene. I would have him in every second that Dwight is in.

 

Harden: No beef with Howard

ATLANTA - Houston Rockets guard James Harden said Friday he's got no issues with former teammate and current Atlanta Hawks center Dwight Howard, whom he'll face on Saturday night.

Harden and Howard were teammates for three seasons with the Rockets until Howard declined to pick up his player option this summer.

Howard signed a three-year $70.5 million deal with Atlanta.

During a disappointing 41-41 2015-16 season, a source told ESPN the relationship between Howard and Harden was "cordially bad." It's something Harden disputes.

"Yeah we're cool," Harden said.

When asked about the perception the two players had friction, Harden said, "It didn't bother me. I know what the truth is, it's no beef. We never got into a heated argument. It just didn't work out."

Harden said he didn't know why things failed with Howard and the Rockets. The pair led the team to the postseason three times, with two first round exits and a trip to the Western Conference Finals.

"Trust me, if we knew, it would have worked out," he said.

At the start of the season, several players, including Harden, said there was a different vibe to the team. It was perceived that things are calmer, drama-free without Howard.

"Vibe means we have different players and make them feel as comfortable as possible. That's what I meant by different vibe," Harden said. "That's one of the reasons why we had training camp twice in the summer so they can get comfortable quick and then when we came to training camp at the beginning of the season, guys will be playing a lot better. That's the reason for that."

Last season, Howard complained about a lack of touches, even admitting he became disinterested during games. He went to GM Daryl Morey asking to be more involved in the offense. According to Howard, Morey said the team wouldn't give him a bigger role in the offense. Harden said at the time the Rockets needed to get the ball to Howard, but it eventually didn't happen enough.

In the offseason, Howard declined his player option and after the Rockets hired Mike D'Antoni as head coach it meant the end for Howard's time in Houston.

D'Antoni coached Howard for one season with the Los Angeles Lakers and things didn't mesh well. After D'Antoni was hired, the coach said he wasn't asked about retaining Howard, but was open to it.

"I'm not a big post up guy and he is," D'Antoni said Friday when asked about Howard's free agency.​

 

How do you not get into an argument at the time? I think it might make Me feel better if they did argued with each other, instead of making it seem they passive aggressively do not care and stop keeping it all inside all the time. If you are a leader, I do not see how you don't get into with each other if you really care about winning in the league.

 

Everyone knows this. They got along fine off the court, the on court chemistry just wasn't there.

 

They obviously got into an argument, Harden is just keeping things nice to prevent drama from blowing up. Reporters tend to exaggerate and put focus on interesting headlines, if Harden had said yeah we argued a bit the headline would be "Harden admits friction with Howard caused Rockets downfall last year".

Rockets had like 2 or 3 player only meetings last season, I'm pretty sure they didn't hold those meetings to decide where they were gonna eat for dinner lol.

 

Cavs aren't serious now? I'll take a close lose (we were neck and neck until 1 min before the game ended) against the Champs against wins from other teams, if we can keep up to the Cavaliers we can match up against anyone.

 

I blame Khloe

 

OutKast's old stuff wasn't bad.

 

They didn't get into any argument

Everything went bad when Morey told Dwight he wasn't a priority in the offense.

Dwight checked out and f***ed the whole locker room up like he does everywhere he goes

 

Most GMs would have been fired for letting Dwight walk, which he obviously was going to do, instead of trading him before the deadline. Morey is lucky there a Leslie Alexander in the league to work for LOL.. Just think about that for a sec.

 

Hopefully they feed Dwight the ball. That's a recipe for a loss for ATL

 

We're going to need Nene this game, for sure. Maybe even Harrell if we choose to foul Howard instead of letting him finish around the basket.

I'm way more scared of Paul Millsap. I think we are going to let Howard get his, making the Hawks rely on his post game for points but If Millsap has a big game too, it won't be good for us.

Rockets win behind Harden's 32/13 112-107

 

Howard lost to his ex-backup center today. He will lose to his other ex-backup center tomorrow.